Re: late night thoughts: misunderstand what?

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

David Marjanovic writes:
 > > When the herbivore hits it's mass limit,
 > 
 > That's not a "when", that's an "if". It has been calculated that at
 > 140 tonnes the legs of a land animal must be so thick that they
 > must touch in the midline; the latest estimate for *Amphicoelias
 > fragillimus* is 122 tonnes.

Just been catching up on this thread, which I should have been a part
of :-)  I'm not going to get into details here, but I would like to
ask:

What is the reference for the 140-tonne thick legs?  I've seen this
alluded to a few times on list, but never read anything about it
elsewhere.  Hokannen (1986) concludes that "The limit is suggested to
lie between 105 and 106 kg. A possibility for a still higher mass, in
case of new adaptations, is not excluded."

 _/|_    ___________________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor    <mike@indexdata.com>    http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "At the age of 14, Tolkien was fun [to me] precisely because he
         was not a writer; he was the grand-daddy of all Dungeons & Dragons
         referees" -- Andrew Rilstone, _Is Tolkein Actually Any Good?_